Praise for Trojan Batteries

[Dockhead]

My house batteries are now 4 years old. My boat is a living hell for batteries -- I like to anchor out; I spend at least 4 months a year on board and lately more than 6 months a year; my mooring has no shore power; I have no solar.

As a result of this, the batts get a workout almost every day.

Worse than that, I have not done a great job of taking care of them. I have had two separate cases where the batts were run down to 0 volts and left that way for weeks (long stories, both of them). And last summer, during a month of long distance travel, I did not notice that they were using water and let them get down to well below the tops of the plates

On the plus side, I always charge them no later than when I see 24.2 volts, even with a moderate load on, and often sooner, and I equalize them regularly.


Notwithstanding all of the abuse they have suffered, they just keep on ticking. I notice a moderate decrease in capacity from new, but nothing dramatic. We run the inverter more or less 24/7 and never worry about electrical power. The capacity is still more than adequate. Lead-acid batteries are kind of a Dr. Frankenstein technology; definitely 19th century. Our grandchildren will find it incredible that we used such a technology (as our children find it impossible to imagine life without mobile phones). But they do the job. Especially lead acid batteries from Trojan, who make them incomparably tougher than my last batteries (a set of Varta "leisure" batteries), which were killed, never to be rescusitated, the very first time they got run down flat, at less than a year old. And what is even better, they weren't even all that expensive -- less than 50% premium compared to the previous Vartas.

[zboss]

I'm pretty happy with my Trojan batteries as well.

They are only a year and a half old now but we live on the boat year-round. We have solar and wind to keep them topped up - they reach 100% (According to our Balmar Smartgauge Capacity and Voltage readings) at least twice a week even though we regularly run them down to 60% capacity when we go a day or two without full sun. We almost never have to run the generator to charge them; Maybe a dozen times since last fall.

We have water-miser caps so we only have to top up about 5 times a year it seems.

However, we have only equalized them twice. That's definitely on my list for this month.

[svHyLyte]

We have gotten 7 years service out of our sets of four T-105's with diligent maintenance and, in particular, insuring that the batteries are properly watered. Trojan makes a little plastic key shaped device to measure the fill level in their batteries that I have found very useful and I have rarely had to add more that 3 oz of water per month to any of the cells on our most recent set, now 30+ months old.

FWIW...

[Cheechako]

I'd start praising at about 6 years,, :>)

[IdoraKeeper]

What ever happened to the idea of solar on the pontoon? Avoiding carp and all that.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

I'd start praising at about 6 years,, :>)

I got less than two years out of my last set

[Saltyhog]

Anybody have experience with the Trojan Hydrolink watering system? Hydrolink
I'd like to go with Trojan flooded batteries, but they are located in a pretty inaccessible spot for watering maintenance. The hydrolink setup would make it doable.

[Saltyhog]

Has anybody seen the new Trojan AGMs. They call them Reliant.

They are claiming to be the only true deep cycle AGM. I want to believe the marketing, but I remain skeptical.

[Rubikoop]

Originally Posted by Saltyhog

Anybody have experience with the Trojan Hydrolink watering system? Hydrolink

I'd like to go with Trojan flooded batteries, but they are located in a pretty inaccessible spot for watering maintenance. The hydrolink setup would make it doable.

I picked up a similar system from Ebay targeting golf carts. As I recall it was much cheaper than Trojan. I love it. I can top off all four of my T105s in a couple of minutes and not require a chiropractor!


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Saltyhog

Has anybody seen the new Trojan AGMs. They call them Reliant.

They are claiming to be the only true deep cycle AGM. I want to believe the marketing, but I remain skeptical.

Specs look pretty much the same as Lifeline's.

-Chris

[AnchorageGuy]

We also cruise extensively and anchor out most of the time. Our house bank gets a lot of use and abuse. Over the years we have used both Interstate and now Duracell 6 volt golf cart batteries, They cost much less than the Trojans. We typically get 7 to 8 years out of our house bank before replacement. We replace the batteries as they start to deplete and don't wait until one dies. Many others find the same performance for less money than the Trojans and are able to find replacements when needed where Trojans are not available. I'm not saying they aren't a good battery, just that we have never been able to justify the additional expense. Chuck

[transmitterdan]

I switched from Trojan 6-volt to Duracell 6-volt on a power boat we had a few years ago. Cost was less. The Trojans would start a 454 V8. The Duracells wouldn't even turn the engine over. I know they are deep cycle and not really for starting but it meant the house bank was no longer an emergency backup for the start battery.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by Saltyhog

Anybody have experience with the Trojan Hydrolink watering system? Hydrolink
I'd like to go with Trojan flooded batteries, but they are located in a pretty inaccessible spot for watering maintenance. The hydrolink setup would make it doable.

Hi Saltyhog,

I installed the Trojan Hydrolink when I replaced my battery bank last year for the same reasons you mention. It works great.

Here is my blog entry about that project.

I hope this is helpful.

Cheers!

[AnchorageGuy]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

I switched from Trojan 6-volt to Duracell 6-volt on a power boat we had a few years ago. Cost was less. The Trojans would start a 454 V8. The Duracells wouldn't even turn the engine over. I know they are deep cycle and not really for starting but it meant the house bank was no longer an emergency backup for the start battery.

If your engines didn't turn over using Duracell and did with Trojan, I seriously doubt the problem is the make of the battery. The Duracell battery is the exact same 6 volt deep cycle that West marine sells in their stores, it's just re-badged. A properly charged battery bank will turn an engine over. The starter does not care what make it is. The required voltage will be the same. Especially if these are new batteries. The Duracell batteries are manufactured by East Penn. The Duracell is rated at 230 amps @ 20 hrs. and the Trojan is rated at 220 amps @20 hrs. And there are different Duracell 6 volt batteries, so it's important to compare like batteries for like ratings. Many things, up to an including wiring can affect the performance of any batteries, no matter who makes them. Chuck

[transmitterdan]

The internal resistance of these Duracells was too high. Same wiring with both. I checked terminal voltage when trying to crank and it was about 7V. Maybe one or both was bad. But they worked fine as a house bank.